The Dragon Queen
by Breathing in Poison
Summary: Dragon!Elsa. After the death of her parents, Elsa ran off into the mountains, leaving Anna as heir...with no memories of her sister's existence. Once the council announces her as queen, as well as announcing Elsa's blood ties, Anna goes off to search for her...despite the stories of a monstrous beast haunting the wilds. Mostly action. WARNING: Violence, blood, death.
1. Prolouge

The Dragon Queen

Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen

A/N: Inspired by KuroTails's fanfic, Warm Breath, but minus the shipping. Like, almost no ships are in this story. Minus the Arendelle boats. Sorted.

And I'll upload a rough sketch of adult dragon-Elsa as I envision her onto my deviantart page, TheLittleWaterDragon, tomorrow. If you're curious.

_16 Years Earlier..._

"Do the magic, do the magic!"

Two young princesses stood alone in the middle of an empty ballroom, bright and awake, despite the fact that it was the middle of the night. One of them, the eldest, formed a blindingly-white snowball and threw it up into the air, where it burst into blue sparks.

The younger one laughed. "Wow! That was so pretty, Elsa!"

Elsa smiled shyly and dipped her head. "Thank you."

Anna squirmed impatiently. "Do the dragon now!"

Elsa cocked her head. "What?"

"You know- change into a dragon now!"

Elsa hesitated, then let out an uncertain smile. "A-all right..."

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, tucking her head to her chest. Anna watched excitedly as a flurry of snowflakes whirled around Elsa, increasing in numbers and wind speed every second.

Then there was a blinding white-blue flash, and the snowflakes fell to the ground in a rush of white powder. Where Elsa had stood, there was now a small white dragon, almost feline in appearance, with small nubs for horns and a soft white ruff running from the top of her head to the tip of her tasseled tail. Pure white bird wings unfolded from the dragonling's sides, then furled against her back as if she didn't know what to do with them.

Elsa opened bright, ice blue eyes and asked, "Did it work?"

Anna giggled. "Sorry! I don't speak dragon!"

Elsa's eyes widened. She stared at her small white paws, her large, half-opened wings, her lustrous white fur. She nearly tripped over her tail, then let out a feeble, joyous roar, breathing a cloud of snowflakes into the air. At last, after months of half-transformations and dragonly mishaps, she had finally managed a dragon!

Once she had realized that she could transform-about a year ago-she had practiced almost nonstop, never quite getting her magic right. It became commonplace for the servants to come across the crown princess running down a corridor with a dragon's forearms, a forked tongue, and a tail dragging behind her, large, eagle-like wings flapping wildly on her back. Or to be eating at the table at dinner and find your gaze met with catlike blue eyes, a disturbing sensation when unaware of the young girl's powers.

Anna laughed and ran around her older sister. "This is so great!" She shouted. "We can chase each other and play in the snow and oooh, you can fly, right? SothenyoucangoflyingANDLETMERIDEONYOURBACKOHMYGOSHTHISISSOGREAT!"

Elsa huffed and gave her sister an amused look before gently stopping her with her tail. She pawed snow up in front of her, then laboriously wrote in it with one black talon.

GOT TO LEARN HOW TO FLY FIRST. THEN GIVE DRAGONBACK RIDES.

Luckily, Anna had been given reading lessons the past week-the only class she would listen to, so she could understand the spelled-out codes her parents mouthed to each other.

"Gotta-learn-how-to-fly," She spelled out. "Then-give-dragon-rides." Her face fell slightly, but was replaced by a grin. "Okay! But we can still play now, right?"

Dragon-Elsa 'smiled' and nodded.

"Yes!" Anna ran off. "Catch me if you can!"

Elsa smiled again and stamped a hind paw on the ground. There was a loud crackling noise, followed by Anna's yelp of protest as the floor turned to ice.

Her powers still worked. Excellent.

.

.

.

"ROAR!"

"Aargh!" A dismayed Anna found that, despite her head start, she was severely outmatched. She slipped on the ice floor and stumbled through the snowdrifts, while Elsa's long, hooked claws and lynx-like paws allowed her traction over both ice and snow. The princess scrambled franticly through the ballroom, while a delighted snow dragon chased after her.

Elsa suppressed a dragon-y laugh. This was great! She didn't even have to strain herself to catch Anna, who was usually the faster one. In fact, she was holding herself back, and still had no trouble keeping up with her little sister.

Anna tripped over her own feet and landed on the floor with an _oomph! _She tried to scrabble back up, but Elsa was too fast. In a flash, the dragon princess was towering over her sister, and Anna was trapped.

Anna yelped and threw her hands up in front of her face. "Fearful dragon, don't eat me!"

Elsa fake-roared and pulled a fierce expression. Anna begged and pleaded, (through bursts of laughter) but Elsa was adamant. She breathed a small puff of snowflakes at Anna's face, then thumped her head down onto Anna's chest.

Anna, grinning, played her part. "Aargh!" She groaned. "No! Now the big scary dragon is going to eat me! No...My family...my prince...my kingdom... ahh..." she closed her eyes and flopped dramatically onto the floor.

Elsa shape-shifted back to a reasonably human form. "You've been reading too many stories," she said gleefully. "I didn't even have to tell you your lines!"

Anna bounced up. "I love the fairytales! They're so fun! Especially the ones were the dragon and the princess become finds and defeat the evil prince!"

Elsa smiled, showing a noticeable amount of sharp teeth. "Well, we already completed a part of that story." She giggled, tail swishing behind her. "Now all we need is a prince!"

They both laughed. Elsa turned almost fully dragon again, but before they could start a new game of chase, Anna asked her sister one last thing.

"Elsa?"

"Yes, Anna?"

"Will you protect me from an evil prince, if one did attack us?"

She hugged the snow dragon, her head resting on the dragon's wing shoulder.

Elsa turned her head and rested her chin on top of her little sister's head.

"Always," she whispered, and though she spoke dragon, both princesses knew exactly what she said.

A/N: A little continuation of the playtime, the accident, and a sum-up follow this prologue chapter. Then the real fun begins ;)


	2. No Such Thing As Dragons

The Dragon Queen

Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen

A/N: Oops. Forgot to upload the image. Sorry :)

And I tried to write the rest of the playtime/what happened afterward, but it wouldn't come out the way I wanted it to, so this happened instead. Hope you like it.

Anna was dreaming again.

It was the same one that had been plaguing her for the past three years now, haunting her in her sleep, leaving her with unanswerable questions. The same, always the same...

_...A white-haired young woman tiptoed down to the water's edge, casting fearful glances around her. She was no older than Anna was now, and her face was gaunt, dark shadows under her eyes and a dead look to the bright sapphire orbs, as if she had been fighting a battle against an opponent who cannot be beaten. She took several deep, rasping breaths, clenching her gloved hands tightly, then turned and looked back the way she came, several unreadable emotions flickering through her eyes as she drank in the sight like a starving child before a feast._

_Anna tried to read the girl's emotions. Fear? Guilt? Longing? Which one? There were too many, too twisted, and the girl was too frightened, her terror blacking out the others into indiscernible flashes. She twisted her head back to the ford in a sharp, birdlike movement, staring yearningly out over the water. _

_Anna's breath caught in her throat. No matter how many times she viewed this, no matter how hauntingly familiar the girl was, that simple shift always startled her._

_That move couldn't...isn't human._

_The lady crept closer to the water. She cast a quick glance back to the path, then closed her eyes in despair._

"_I'm sorry." She whispered, her lilting, silvery voice breaking. "I'm sorry I failed you, Anna." She shivered, squeezing her eyes shut tight. "It's better this way."_

_Anna jolted in surprise. She said my name...She actually said my name! Not Mamma, not Poppa, ANNA. Me! She knew me!_

_Her dream-brow furrowed as she watched the dream progress. _

_Who are you?_

_The white-haired girl ducked her head, took another deep breath, and began to run. Not back the way she came. Not along the shoreline. But out, out onto the water._

_Anna tried to scream, but her voice wouldn't work. It never worked. _

_No, don't do that, you'll fall into the water, you'll drown..._

_She always forgot herself._

_But instead of sinking into the dark waves, never to be found again, the girl continued running. A wave momentarily obscured Anna's vision, but was soon gone, giving her full view of the ice blooming out from under the woman's shoes as she ran across the water. She tripped, stumbled sometimes, but her strides were strong and sure as she darted over the frozen sea._

_Almost as if using magic was commonplace to her._

_The ice spread across the fjord with a loud, crackling __**hiss**__, bright blue-white fractals swirling with devastating beauty. The waves stopped moving, the boats froze in place, and fishing nets were covered in a thick layer of rime. _

_The sorceress never stopped moving. She hit the shore, stumbled slightly, then started running again, heading into the woods._

_But before she reached the trees, a flurry of white overtook her, swirling blizzard winds howling through the still night air. Anna instinctively threw her hands up in front of her eyes to protect herself from the stinging ice shards, then squinted back across the fjord. _

_The storm raged on. There was a loud, heavy WHUMP, WHUMP, WHUMP sound, like a pair of huge wings were battling the storm, but the girl was gone._

_Anna sighed in defeat._

_But the frost still spread, covering the trees in white, dropping the humid summer air into a deadly chill, painting the landscape in winter colors..._

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

The dream shattered. Anna groaned, desperately trying to catch and repair the broken fragments, but the loud, annoying noise continued.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"Eh...Wha?" Anna flailed around in bed. "Dragon..."

There was a pause. "No, Your Highness, I'm afraid it's just me. Time to get ready."

Anna sat up and stretched, bulling a strand of hair from her mouth. "Oh...Kai? Good. For a moment I thought you were a..."

"Dragon?" There was a dry chuckle from the other side of the door. "I assume that you've been having that nightmare again?"

"Yeah." Anna turned to her mirror (which had been broken a long, long time ago). Her fractured reflection seemed almost... inhuman.

She shivered.

"Don't worry, Your Highness." Kai's voice was soothing. "There never were any dragons. And...there never will be."

Anna heard the catch in the servant's voice, but chose to ignore it. It wasn't like he would explain anything to her, anyways.

Ever since the Great Freeze happened, about a week after her parent's deaths, Anna had been plagued with the dreams of the lone woman, running across the fjord. It was so disturbingly _real_ to Anna that she had inquired the meager staff about the woman, telling them every minute detail. They had all replied with responses of 'No, Your Highness, I've never heard of her,' or 'It's just a dream, Your Highness. It'll pass.' And even 'Are you feeling okay, Your Highness? You look kind of flushed.' They all said this looking meekly down at the floor, or busily doing their jobs, or staring out at some distant horizon.

They all refused to answer her question.

And then there was the other one...Anna shuddered. No. Better not think about it. Too many nightmares.

She got up, grabbed a brush, and started raking it through her messy red-gold locks. The single strand of white hair drifted in front of her eyes, and she shoved it back with a huff. Anna glanced quickly at her clothes, realized she fell asleep wearing one of her fancy dresses, and deemed it presentable enough, if a little rumpled.

She started to plait her hair into two neat braids.

"It's okay," she whispered to herself. "I'm fine. After all..."

She paused. Maybe it was because of her imagination, maybe it was the product of the way the light bounced off the frozen fjord, but her reflection's hair was a pale silver-white, the color of snow, and her eyes were a despairing icy blue.

She finished braiding with a flourish of summer-green ribbons, forcing a wry smile at her ghostly double.

Her eyes glinted.

"...There's no such thing as dragons."


	3. Monster

The Dragon Queen

Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen

_Meanwhile, on the North Mountain..._

Snow. Nothing but snow, the damn moon-blasted white fluff that leeches the warmth from your bones and leaves you with soggy boots and wet clothes.

At least, that's what the Arendelle guards were thinking.

One of them reined in his horse. The startled fjord stallion reared with a surprised whinny, the silvery bit jangling in his teeth.

The guard yanked its head down with an irate growl. He turned to his companions-who had halted, waiting- and shouted over the howling winds; "It's no use! Can't see anything but snow in any direction!"

The captain's face became grim. "We have to push on. It's the princess's orders."

The treasonous guard let out a bitter laugh. "So what? She's not queen yet. It's the council who's ruling us. If we turn around now, we can make it back by sundown tomorrow. I don't want to be caught in these mountains for another night."

The captain hesitated and stared out into the storm. His brow furrowed as he considered his options: Make it back to a warm hearth and safety, defying the council's orders, or push on, at the mercy of a blizzard and the monstrous beasts who prowled the depths of the wilderness?

If you consider it, it's hardly a choice.

The guardsman, thinking the captain would refuse his offer, said quietly, "We can always say that our efforts were fruitless."

The commander gritted his teeth and whirled his hors around. "Alright!" he shouted. "Change of plans. If we press our pace, we can be out of these accursed peaks before nightfall."

The group let out a ragged cheer and slowly began to turn their backs against the wind.

They'd not gone more than thirty feet when the captain's horse suddenly halted and pricked its ears. The leader frowned and was about to spur the horse on when the sound struck his ears.

A distant roar, high in pitch and deep in ferocity, echoing off the cliff walls. The horses panicked, kicking out their legs, their flight hampered by the snow. The men calmed them, then readied their weapons and glanced around fretfully.

One of the soldiers grinned nervously. "Probably an avalanche."

Fearful chuckles swept through the group, but they held their assorted spears, crossbows, and swords in a white-knuckled grip. The horse's eyes rolled, their legs locked and trembling.

Another roar sounded, closer this time. It was very loud ad piercing and distinctly _angry_, as if the motley group of soldiers had trespassed into sacred ground.

Several warriors whimpered and crossed themselves, their eyes wide with terror.

That was definitely _not _an avalanche.

As if summoned by this thought, something very large thudded down not ten feet from the soldiers, covering them in a shower of snow. A deep, catlike growl vibrated through the air, and three-foot-long black talons ripped open a horse's back... with its rider still on it.

Blood painted the pure-white sky, pinwheeling through the air like so many drops of scarlet ink.

Chaos erupted. Men scrambled to dismount as their horses panicked, racing off into the storm or wreaking havoc. The monster struck constantly, just a quick dart and glimpse of bloody fangs here or a roar and tail-lash there, its bright white fur making it nearly invisible in the flurrying snow.

Some jabbed their spears into the gloom, others slashed with their swords, some loosed crossbow bolts into the whiteness. Approximately none hit their target.

Only one man earned a lucky strike. He jabbed his sword at a shifting wall of white, and was rewarded by a nearly-human gasp and a spurt of hot blood. He let out a wild war cry and swung at the monster again, but his crimson-stained blade met only empty air and snowflakes.

The captain (who had been luck and only lost a leg and half his face) managed to capture a horse and drape himself over it. "Come on, men!" He screamed, trying franticly to hold on. "Get a horse and head for the forest!"

The few survivors dragged themselves off the bloodstained sleet and staggered to their feet, groaning.

Bloody, maimed, terrified out of their wits, but alive. The commander grinned (as best as he could) and sent a silent prayer of thanks.

The good mood lasted approximately two seconds.

A bolt of icy blue...fire? jetted out of the northern side and hit a mounted soldier full in the face. He let out one last scream and then was gone, frozen solid with his eyes full of helpless terror.

The icefire washed over the battlefield, freezing everything in its path. The captain was allowed just enough time to curse his bad luck before turning into an icicle, his horse's hooves raking the sky in one last plea.

The creature-in-the-storm let out a satisfied grunt and grabbed a horse by the legs, dragging it away to a safe distance. It was sure that all of the intruders were gone, the soldier supposed, creeping farther into the underbrush. Now, it will feast.

You see, a lone guardsman, a rather twitchy young fellow barely old enough to be called a man, let alone a warrior, had escaped into the nearby forest while his fellow patrollers fought the unknown white beast. He supposed that he should be feeling rather cowardly and ashamed of himself right now, but the only emotions he could summon up at the moment were ones of dread and morbid fascination.

He watched, edging back under the safety of the trees as the blizzard stilled and the monster crept cautiously out of the snow cloud.

At first, his only impression was of a bloodsplattered muzzle and two huge, curving fangs. The creature took two great sniffs, then emerged out into the glory of the white winter/summer sun.

The guard stifled a shriek of fear.

There, standing barely fifty feet away from his hiding spot, was a dragon.

The monster was huge. As far as the guard could reckon, it stood roughly forty feet tall at the shoulder, had a wingspan of approximately one hundred feet, and was probably about sixty feet long. Sleek white fur ran the length of its body, smooth and even in some areas, bloodsplattered and ragged in the rest. Large, curving horns swept back over the dragon's ruff. Sharp, curved claws hooked at the bend of the monster's wings. Long, feathery ears flickered, and huge ice-blue eyes streaked with green surveyed the landscape with cold cunning.

But the scariest part of all wasn't the claws, or the fangs, or the blood-streaked fur. It wasn't the way the dragon cleaned the blood from her-for it was unmistakably a female-claws with a forked pink tongue. It wasn't the way the dragoness tore into the horse with savage gusto.

What was scary was how human- how utterly _human_- this creature, this _monster's_ eyes were.

The sentinel looked into them, and a new image reassembled in his brain. The picture of a white-haired young woman, with soft, bright blue eyes and a gentle, shy laugh.

_That_, as you can surely understand, was kind of creepy.

The dragon jerked to attention. It gazed around suspiciously, then looked right at the young man's hiding place.

The guardsman jolted to his feet and ran off into the woods, mind blank with terror.

The last thing he heard was a mournful, keening cry.


	4. To Be a Queen

The Dragon Queen

Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen

A/N: I finally posted and cleaned up the pictures of Elsa in dragon form on my Deviantart account. The links are here: art/Queen-Elsa-in-Dragon-Form-468599733 (Fullbody) and art/Snow-Dragon-Close-Up-Improved-468367437 (Headshot, a bit rougher than the fullbody.)

_Council meetings are boring._

Anna leaned sleepily back in her chair. The voices of the council members, all small, sour old men, droned into one irritating hum.

_Boring, boring, boring, boring, BORING!_

It didn't help that they all expected her to play leader, either. Sure, Anna knew that she would be queen sooner or later, but it just didn't seem...real. Like she wasn't meant to be queen. Like there was someone else who was supposed to assume the crown...

Bright white fur and sharp black claws flashed through Anna's mind.

"...The ice business, for the moment, is stable. Though there is a supply-and-demand problem within the kingdom at the moment, there has been an increasing amount of requests outside of Arendelle's borders... Princess? Princess, are you listening?"

Anna jerked to attention "What? Did I miss something?" She rubbed her eyes and blinked sleepily as the people of the council came into focus. She immediately regretted the action, however, when the several displeased looks became all too apparent.

"You dozed off again, Your Highness." The speaker's voice was a tad sharp. "I trust that you've had a full night's rest?"

Anna blushed and mumbled something under her breath. The congress member sighed and continued where he left off.

"As I was saying, though the sled-trading technique has its difficulties, the amazing durability of Arendelle's ice is causing it to be a major success among Arendelle's trade partners, especially among the hotter countries, such as Corona..."

Anna sat up straight and tried to look like she was listening. The end result was a squirming, embarrassed-looking princess figure that made all the members of the council sigh with disappointment.

.

.

.

"You should have seen the way they looked at me, Joan. Like I was some sort of huge disappointment. I mean, it's not like I WANT to be queen. It just doesn't feel...right, you know? I'm too squirmy and impatient and reckless to be a good ruler. And all this politic stuff...bleah! It's just a bunch of grumpy old men in fancy suits yelling at each other. And they all treat me like a child. I mean, look at me! Do I look like a kid to you?"

Anna sat, fuming, at the top of a faded gallery chair. Despite the fierce rage in her eyes, she looked very much like a child-from her messy copper hair to her tomato-red face all the way down to her flat chest and skinny frame.

Joan chose not to point this out.

"Even the servants are in on it! I've been having those dreams again, Joan, and they are _real_. I swear to God they're visions, just like the heroes of the stories get sometimes! Hell, I even woke up felling like my nose was frostbitten off!"

Anna dropped her head onto the pillows and gazed balefully at the painting. Her stomach let out a liquid, gurgling growl, but she ignored it. "Oh, Joan," she sighed. "What am I going to do?"

Joan of Arc sat still in her picture-frame, dark eyes fierce and bold against the swirling red-blacks. Sword aloft, armor shining bright, her very posture seemed to tell Anna the words that the painted ghost could not. _Follow your heart,_ the warrior's gaze seemed to say. _Do what you feel is right, for without your instincts, all would be lost._

Years ago, Anna would have believed the painting's advice and scurried off to do whatever she wanted, singing and dancing and talking to the other paintings on a whim, because hey, nobody elsa would speak to her, or even lend an ear when she wanted it and even though the pictures couldn't speak back they were really good listeners.

But three years of never-ending cold and hunger had worn the young girl down. Dark shadows were prominent under her bitter-blue eyes, and her frame was terrifyingly bony under her skirts and sweaters, casting sharp-angled shadows across the pale wooden floor. Her mood had dipped from happy-go-lucky to bitter and snappish, as if the permanent withdrawal of summer warmth and color had sapped the life from her soul.

She glared angrily at the canvas. "Yeah, right," she snapped. "I tried that, and guess what. Happiness means NOTHING. Your heart is will only lead you astray. The best thing to do is shoulder your damn issues and do what's best, because nothing good will come of it otherwise!"

She turned and stalked out of the gallery.

She swear she could feel Joan's disapproving gaze boring into the back of her neck.

But all she did was steady her breath and slam the door.

A/N: I had a little Elsa-clip that I was going to put after this, but I decided that it would be more dramatic this way. ;) Oh, don't worry, there WILL be Elsa! Just little bits and flashes here and there at the beginning and ending of chapters.

Because that's what winter is. An ending, but also a beginning. A death of a new year, the rebirth of an old. A chance to find new life, new hope, and let the pains of the past lie buried in the snow.

Wow. That was weirdly poetic O.o

Hey, maybe that's why Olaf is alive! Beginnings and endings! Birth and Life! Renewal and regret!

I need to do this more often! :)


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